Academy Award for Best Actress
}} The Academy Award for Best Actress is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given in honor of an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role while working within the film industry. The award is traditionally presented by the previous year's Best Actor winner. The 1st Academy Awards ceremony was held in 1929 with Janet Gaynor receiving the award for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise. Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. In the first three years of the awards, actresses were nominated as the best in their categories. At that time, all of their work during the qualifying period (as many as three films, in some cases) was listed after the award. However, during the 3rd ceremony held in 1930, only one of those films was cited in each winner's final award, even though each of the acting winners had two films following their names on the ballots. The following year, this unwieldy and confusing system was replaced by the current system in which an actress is nominated for a specific performance in a single film. Starting with the 9th ceremony held in 1937, the category was officially limited to five nominations per year. One actress has been nominated posthumously, Jeanne Eagels. Since its inception, the award has been given to 76 actresses. Katharine Hepburn has won the most awards in this category, with four Oscars. With 17 nominations, Meryl Streep is the most nominated in this category, resulting in two wins. At age 21, Marlee Matlin became the youngest actress to win this award for Children of a Lesser God. As of the 2019 ceremony, Olivia Colman is the most recent winner in this category for her portrayal of Anne, Queen of Great Britain in The Favourite. Winners and nominees In the following table, the years are listed as per Academy convention, and generally correspond to the year of film release in Los Angeles County; the ceremonies are always held the following year. For the first five ceremonies, the eligibility period spanned twelve months from August 1 to July 31. For the 6th ceremony held in 1934, the eligibility period lasted from August 1, 1932, to December 31, 1933. Since the 7th ceremony held in 1935, the period of eligibility became the full previous calendar year from January 1 to December 31. was the first winner in this category for her roles in 7th Heaven (1927), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), and Street Angel (1928).|alt=Publicity photo of Janet Gaynor for Argentinean Magazine in 1931.]] has the most wins in this category for her roles in Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968), and On Golden Pond (1981).|alt=Black-and-white photo of Katharine Hepburn circa 1941.]] was the first European-born actress (France) to win this award for her role in It Happened One Night (1934)|alt=Publicity photo of Claudette Colbert.]] won two awards from ten nominations for her roles in Dangerous (1935) and Jezebel (1938).|alt=Black-and-white photo of Bette Davis from the 1938 film Jezebel.]] was the first person to win two consecutive acting Oscars, for The Great Ziegfeld (1936) and The Good Earth (1937); the youngest two-time winner, at 27 and 28 years old.|alt=Black-and-white photo of Luise Rainer in 1941.]] won twice for her roles as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951).|alt=Black-and-white photo of Vivien Leigh in 1939.]] won for her role in Suspicion (1941).|alt=Photo of Joan Fontaine in 1942.]] won twice, for her roles in To Each His Own (1946) and The Heiress (1949).|alt=Black-and-white photo of Olivia de Havilland in 1938.]] won for her role in Roman Holiday (1953).|alt=Black-and-white photo of Audrey Hepburn from 1956.]] won two awards from five nominations for 1960's BUtterfield 8 and 1966's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.|alt=Black-and-white photo of Elizabeth Taylor 1953.]] won for her role in Two Women (1961), the first win for a non-English language performance. ]] won for her performance as the titular character in Mary Poppins (1964).|alt=Photo of Julie Andrews in Sydney, Australia in 2013.]] won for her role as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl (1968).|alt=Photo of Barbra Streisand in 1965.]] won this award twice for her roles in Women in Love (1969) and A Touch of Class (1973).|alt=Glenda Jackson's portrait in 1971]] won twice from six nominations for her roles in Klute (1971) and Coming Home (1978).|alt=Color photo of Jane Fonda at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.]] won this award twice for her roles in Norma Rae (1979) and Places in the Heart (1984).|alt=Black-and-white photo of Sally Field in 1981.]] has received six nominations in this category, winning for her portrayal of Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980).|alt=Photo of Sissy Spacek receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 1, 2011.]] has been nominated a record 17 times in the Best Actress category, winning twice for Sophie's Choice (1982) and as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady (2011).|alt=Color studio portrait of Meryl Streep by Jack Mitchell, circa 1976-79.]] won once from five nominations for her role in 1983's Terms of Endearment.|alt=Black-and-white publicity photo of Shirley MacLaine promoting the film The Apartment.]] became the youngest, and the only deaf, actress to win in the category of Best Actress for her performance in Children of a Lesser God (1986).|alt=Photo of Marlee Matlin in 2009.]] won twice for her roles as Sarah Tobias in The Accused (1988) and as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).|alt=Photo of Jodie Foster in 1995.]] became the oldest winner in this category for her performance in 1989's Driving Miss Daisy.|alt=Publicity photo of Jessica Tandy in the 1950s.]] won for her role in Howards End (1992).|alt=Photo of Emma Thompson in 2009.]] was nominated five times, winning once in 1995 for her role in Blue Sky (1994).|alt=Photo of Jessica Lange in 2008.]] won twice for her roles in Fargo (1996) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).]] won this award twice for her roles in Boys Don't Cry (1999) and Million Dollar Baby (2004).|alt=Photo of Hilary Swank at the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival in 2015.]] won for playing Erin Brockovich in Erin Brockovich (2000).|alt=Photo of Julia Roberts at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.]] won for her role in Monster's Ball (2001), becoming the first and only black actress to win this category. |alt=Photo of Halle Berry at the 2017 San Diego Comic-Con International.]] won for playing Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002).|alt=Photo of Nicole Kidman at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.]] won for playing Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2003), becoming the first South African to win this category.|alt=Photo of Charlize Theron at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.]] won for playing June Carter Cash in Walk the Line (2005).|alt=Photo of Reese Witherspoon at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.]] won for portraying Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen (2006).|alt=Photo of Helen Mirren at the 2014 Moët British Independent Film Awards.]] won for playing Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007); the first person to win for a French-language film.|alt=Photo of Marion Cotillard at the 2017 Cabourg Film Festival.]] won for her role in The Reader (2008).|alt=Photo of Kate Winslet at the 2011 Venice Film Festival.]] won for her role in The Blind Side (2009).|alt=Photo of Sandra Bullock at the Australian premiere of The Heat on July 2, 2013.]] won for her role in Black Swan (2010).|alt=Photo of Natalie Portman at the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27, 2011.]] won for her role in Silver Linings Playbook (2012).|alt=Photo of Jennifer Lawrence at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con International.]] won for her role in Blue Jasmine (2013).|alt=Photo of Cate Blanchett at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.]] won for her role in Still Alice (2014).|alt=Photo of Julianne Moore at the 2014 Tribeca International Film Festival.]] won for her role in Room (2015).|alt=Photo of Brie Larson in 2013.]] won for her role in La La Land (2016).|alt=Photo of Emma Stone at the 2016 Mill Valley Film Festival.]] Multiple wins and nominations The following individuals received two or more Best Actress awards: The following individuals received four or more Best Actress nominations: Age superlatives See also * All Academy Award acting nominees * Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress * Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead * BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role * César Award for Best Actress * Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama * Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical * Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Notes : A''' : Rules at the time of the first three ceremonies allowed for a performer to receive a single nomination which could honor their work in more than one film. Greta Garbo and Norma Shearer were both nominated for two different roles in the same category. Current Academy rules forbid this from happening. No official reason was ever given as to why Shearer won the award for only one of the two films she was listed for. : '''B : Bette Davis's performance in Of Human Bondage was not nominated for an Oscar. Several influential people at the time campaigned to have her name included on the list, so for that year (and the following year also) the Academy relaxed its rules and allowed a write-in vote. Technically this meant that any performance was eligible to win the award, whether or not the person was an official nominee. While the Academy does not officially recognize this as a nomination for Davis, it has included her in the list of nominees for the 1935 ceremony on its official website. : C : Both Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand received the exact same number of votes, resulting in both actresses receiving the award, according to Academy rules. References Bibliography * * * * External links * Oscars.org (official Academy site) * The Academy Awards Database (official site) * Oscar.com (official ceremony promotional site) Category:Academy Awards Category:Best Actress Academy Award winners Category:Film awards for lead actress